Mickaela Maehren, Emma Douglas and JayLee Herr-mann traveled to Apple Valley High School Saturday, April 21, to compete at the Minnesota State High School League Speech State Tournament.
"None of the three girls made it to the finals," said head coach Jennifer Kulm, the speech team coach for 21 years. "But they seemed in decent spirits and were so happy to have made it to state. They felt their goals were met just being there."
It was the first time since 2011 that the Annandale Speech team advanced three members to state.
13 categories
There are 13 categories for students to choose in speech: Creative Expression, Discussion, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Reading, Extemporaneous Speaking, Great Speeches, Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Orignal Oratory, Serious Interpretation – Drama, Serious Interpretation – Poetry, Serious Interpretation – Prose and Storytelling.
At the state meet each participant performs a minimum of three times. At the end of the third round, finalists are announced and the top eight compete in the final round.
JayLee Herrmann
JayLee Herrmann is 17 and a junior at Annandale High School. She has been active in speech for three years.
"I’ve been in speech ever since my friends finally got me to join my freshman year," Herrmann said.
Herrmann’s category was Extemporaneous Reading. She drew three "cuttings" (about one or two pages of a story) from a selection of around 20 short stories.
"For the next half hour I prepare how I want to perform the selection," Herrmann said.
Emma Douglas
Emma Douglas, 17, is an AHS junior and has lived in South Haven her entire life. She lives with her parents Wendy and John and her younger sister Emma.
This was Douglas’ fourth year in speech, having started in the eighth grade.
Douglas competed in the Serious Interpretation of Poetry at the state meet. In this category the speaker presents a serious poem, selection of poems, or portion of a poem.
"I’ve performed in poetry every year that I’ve been in speech," Douglas said. "I selected two poems by Catalina Ferro ‘When My Strength Faileth’ and ‘Anxiety Group’ by Catalina Ferro."
Douglas plans to go to college, and as a profession would like teaching or to become a professional artist.
Mickaela Maehren
Maehren, 18, is a senior at Annandale High School and is a life-long area resident.
Mickaela and her parents Ken and Kris Maehren, along with two brothers Lucas and Justin, make their home in Clearwater.
Maehren has been in speech for six years and her category has always been the Serious Interpretation of Poetry.
Her selection this year was Complainers/Birthday/This is not the end of the world/Alone; Human Family; A brave and startling truth by Rudy Francisco/Andrea Gibson/Neil Milborn/Maya Angelou.
Maehren plans to attend the College of St. Benedict and plans for a major in psychology.
Team member support
It was nice to see some fellow speech team members made the trip to Apple Valley to support Maehren, Douglas and Herrmann.
Watching and showing support for their teammates were Lacey Hoeferlin, Alissa Bidwell, Halle Denardo, Parker Kulm, Kayla Hartman and Mackenzi Martens.
Season assessment
At the start of the season, 43 students made up the speech team.
"Over time, several middle schoolers kind of fizzled out due to the AMS play and the track team starting," Kulm said. "This year we had three seniors join for their first and only year in speech: Elijah Howard, Kaitlynn Johnson and Jessica Scheer.
This year the team had a new approach with the coaching staff.
"We took the assistant coaching position and divided in half," Kulm said. "Wendy Storkamp was one half of that position."
"The other half of the position was split among: Adrienne Edmonson, Polly Kampsen, Dawn Schaefer-Stumpf and Erin Lappen.
Edmonson, Kampsen, Stumpf and Lappen were responsible for coaching only a few kids per week, and attending one speech meet this season.
"This allowed students to work with different category specialists that had strengths that we got to utilize," Kulm said. "This was incredibly beneficial, because kids got a variety of feedback and many perspectives."
Next year
Kulm hopes that in 2019 there will be a coach to focus primarily on the middle school students.
"Admittedly, we struggled with communication and touching base with the kids at AMS," Kulm said. The main reason being, we do not have any physical staff in that building."
Organizers will be hosting a speech camp open to next year’s seventh to 12th-graders Monday, Aug. 14, to Wednesday, Aug. 16 from 1 to 4 p.m.
"Any and all interested students are invited to attend all or parts of those days," Kulm said.